Ken Hackathorn on the M1 Carbine: Reputation vs Reality

The M1 Carbine has long been a bit of an enigma to me, because I have never had really good luck with the design, and yet they were extremely popular with American soldiers, German soldiers, Korean soldiers, Vietnamese soldiers, and a great many other countries. So what’s the deal? Is it as simple as just that the Carbine was light and thus popular mostly with people who never had to actually fire them? Or is there something more going on?

Today we are speaking to Ken Hackathorn about this question. He has a lot of experience with M1 Carbines himself, as well as discussing them with many first-hand military and law enforcement folks who used them.